Friday, January 28, 2011

I haven't had a chance to post on the bathroom work, so I'm stepping back a little bit.... first, Carrie mentioned the framing and expanding the casement ... the existing framing as shown below was ok, and the beadboard is ~3/4" thick-- so the walls are already very solid. What you see below required ripping the 2x4's down on my table saw, then notching with my jig saw. Overall, it went quite well, but it was time consuming. There are still pieces that need to be completed for the drywall.

A tool purchase that helped a lot and I have been very pleased with is the palm nailer, by Rigid, that you can see below... at around $70 at Home Depot, this thing is fantastic. It runs off my small PC pancake compressor, and drove everything without the expense of a framing nailer nor the PSI needs. Highly recommend it.... Also great for angles, toe nailing, etc. this tool pays for itself quickly. No problem to start a nail with a hammer and drive it home with this.

The next step has been the subfloor in the room. While the wood is in OK shape, it has been through multiple bathroom configurations... There are too many holes to salvage it. Below, you can see some of my patchwork-- Overall, the floor was > 2" thick with wood + subfloor, which is good... just needs a few patches.

After some effort and fitting the cement boards to size, it was time to add the thinset underneath the backer board. I bought an $8 drill attachment for stirring the thinset. Following the directions on the bag of mortar, it said to add water and then the thinset, but I think I should have done this gradually (I poured the whole bag in.)

Trying to mix the thinset strained the sh*t out of my favorite Rigid Power Drill (3/8".) It is corded and there was smoke and some nasty fumes coming out from it-- Carrie complained of a headache for the rest of the day.... So I used the stirring attachment without power (think churning butter) but it wasn't perfect-- I didn't like the consistency of the thinset, it was a bit thick, but I think it was ok.

You can see below my scratch coat on the left, I used a drywall knife to lay this down. On the right I am using my trowel... the ridge to the right of my hand was knocked down. Farther to my right, you can see a 2x4 I cut down to prevent thinset from seeping and drying where the threshold will go inside the casement.

First layer of board down here... a few screws in, but not the full allotment. I wanted to lay the thinset efficiently.

Below I am on my second board ... improving technique as I go, this is a nicer scratch coat. If you are wondering about the white spots, that is linoleum adhesive I couldn't get up easily... by easily, I mean without the use of a power tool or pliers and a blowtorch. Everything I read online said to not bother with it if it is secured well to the floor.

This is a shot of my putting in the backer board screws every 8 inches.... I'm sure guys get used to it, but this work is really hard-- hunched over, time sensitive... I have a tremendous amount of respect for guys that do this every day. I used my Hitachi impact driver to do the floor screws, it worked great, although I did have to run to the basement to switch batteries... no biggie.

With all three sections in, I placed some mesh tape on the seams and leveled them a bit.

Finished subfloor, still drying. Screws have been placed every 8".

It is really important to me to give back a little bit.... This is me teaching Georgia how to cut backer board. Once she realized fud wasn't involved she did pretty gud.

Friday, January 21, 2011

We're finally at that point in the bathroom remodel where we're putting things back together instead of tearing them apart. While we still have a way to go, there's light at the end of the tunnel. Speaking of...the electrician was here the other day to rough wire the room for the sconces and the chandelier we picked out. He also wired for a GFCI outlet and a ceiling fan. The ceiling fan will have no purpose other than creating white noise for um, privacy.

I had a heck of a time envisioning where the sconces should go without the mirror and sink in place. Feeling my pain, the electrician left plenty of slack in the wire in case we need to make some adjustments before the sheetrock goes up.

The blue box in the picture below is where the chandelier and fan switch will be, the gray box is for the gfci and sconces.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Friday, January 14, 2011

Things have been progressing in our downstairs powder room. Chris finished framing up the dummy wall that will hide the plumbing for the sink and wiring for the lighting.

This picture looks like it was taken inside an outhouse, but once the sheetrock is up, it will look more refined. Chris enlarged the casement so that our contractor, Tony, will have more surface area to nail the wallboard into. Chris will also add trim molding around to door to make it look more consistent with the rest the house.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Chris and I agreed on a sink for the powder room. If you read this post, then you'd know why it was a such difficult decision. There are so many options to choose from! This is the style we ended up purchasing from Renovator's Supply.

We've accumulated a nice little stockpile of bathroom goods in our living room. Ugh. It will be really nice when this project is finished!

So now that we have the sink taken care of, we'll need to pick a faucet. I'm still hunting around, but this is the short list so far